Dynastic Opponent of Hindu Nationalists Steps up to the Plate

Hindu nationalism has been on the rise socially and politically in India and received the baton of civil authority under the ascension of Narendra Modi to the prime ministership in 2014. Since that time beef for consumption has been banned, and a man who was once denied entry to the United States for his role in sectarian violence is now being courted by admirer and U.S. President Donald Trump. While dynastic politics of any sort should give us pause (as Thomas Paine said in the Rights of Man that dominion has no business being hereditary), the Hindu nationalists have a renewed opposition through Sonia Gandhi’s son Rahul has assumed the presidency of India’s Congress party. India is slated as a “secular state,” and this has been sorely neglected, if not caveated under the rein of the Bharatiya Janata Party.